End-of-day vs intraday trailing drawdown
End-of-day drawdown moves your floor only from your closing balance, so profit you give back during the session costs you nothing. Intraday drawdown moves the floor from your peak during the session, often including open profit, so a winner you let come back to breakeven still raises the floor. Both are usually enforced in real time.
Same account, same trade, two outcomes
A 50K account with a $2,000 drawdown. Floor at $48,000. You buy, the trade runs to +$1,500, then comes all the way back and you close it at breakeven.
| End of day | Intraday | |
|---|---|---|
| Peak during the trade | $51,500 | $51,500 |
| Balance at the close | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Which number moves the floor | the close: $50,000 | the peak: $51,500 |
| Floor after the day | $48,000 | up to $49,500 |
| Room left | $2,000 | $500 |
Nothing lost on the trade, and on the intraday account three quarters of your drawdown is gone. That single example is the whole difference.
Which traders each one punishes
Intraday drawdown punishes giving back open profit. If your style is to let winners breathe through pullbacks, every pullback from a new high costs you room. Scalpers who take profit quickly and rarely see big open gains feel it less.
End-of-day drawdown punishes big closing days that you then give back the next day. A huge green close raises the floor overnight, and a normal red day tomorrow eats into the new, higher floor.
Real-time enforcement is the trap on both
Don't read "end of day" as "only checked at the close". At Apex, Topstep, Tradeify and Take Profit Trader the floor moves at the close but is enforced against your live balance all session. An open loss that touches the floor ends the account even if price comes back.
A note on simulators
When Apex calculates an Intraday peak it counts unrealized profit. A simulator that builds the peak only from your closed trades, including FundedSim's, can show the floor rising a little later than the real account would. Treat the simulator's intraday floor as the optimistic case and leave yourself extra room.
Which one to buy
Practice both before you pay. Run the same week of trades on an Apex End of Day and an Apex Intraday account in the simulator and compare where the floor ends up. If the intraday floor keeps catching you on days you finished green, the cheaper account isn't the cheaper choice for you.
Questions people actually ask
Which is easier to pass, end-of-day or intraday?
For most day traders, end-of-day. It forgives open profit you give back. Intraday accounts are often cheaper, which is part of why they exist.
Is an end-of-day drawdown only checked at the close?
Usually not. The floor only moves at the close, but at firms like Apex, Topstep, Tradeify and Take Profit Trader it's enforced all day against your balance including open trades.
Blow it here, not on a paid eval
Run the same rules on your own trades in the simulator. Free, no card, and a blown account costs you nothing but pride.
Start practicing